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Monday, March 8, 2010

Besnard Lakes are the Very Sluggish Build

The Montreal-based Besnard Lakes are on their third dream/rock album with "The Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night." While we admit this to be an utterly awesome title (and the cover's pretty cool, too), the Lakes seem too entrenched in the languid flow of their genre to fill out an entire album. Every track is a slow-build, with a classic rock feel in the vocal harmonies and guitar work, and while this isn't necessarily a bad thing, consider "Chicago Train," which doesn't hit its first chorus until about 2:30, halfway through the song. To compare, the Beatles would have hit us with two choruses and a repeat in that time; to make the sad, all too familiar refrain: 'Don't bore us, get to the chorus!' The songs that fare better are the longer ones, as they are better developed: "Like The Ocean, Like the Innocent P2" and "Light Up the Night" both satisfy in build and chorus, but at 7+ minutes each, it could be a bit much for the casual listener. The lyrics here are nothing special ("Sunshine seems so bright/ Lonely days go by," first lyrics of "And This Is What We Call Progress" at 1:20), and many of the songs don't seem to generate wholly different sounds; the closer, "The Lonely
Moan," has a different, dreamy feel to it, and this is what we feel should be happening at each track. Too slow to build, too little pay off; pass.